Nelli Podgornaya is a Soviet and Russian theatre actress. In 1950, she came to Moscow from Leningrad and entered the acting department of the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School, graduated in 1954 and in the same year was admitted to the Central Academic Theatre of the Russian Army, to which she was faithful for 57 years.

She made her film debut in 1955 as Klavdiya in "The Rumyantsev Case", directed by Iosif Kheifits, who praised the professionalism of the aspiring actress. This work immediately brought fame to the young artist and became her calling card for life. Since the theater did not approve of the long absence of the actress on the set, she eventually devoted herself entirely to work on stage, refusing all subsequent offers in the cinema, and as a result, played in only three films in the late 1950s.